Miners at the Caypa coalmine in La Guajira, northern Colombia have been on strike since January 27th in protest at poor pay and conditions. The strike exemplifies how complex labour relations have become in Colombia, and how the government does not act to mediate, but rather takes the employers side
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The FARC guerrillas, in response to the recent letter from Colombians for Peace, have released the names of 6 prisoners that they will release. The six, Jorge Trujillo Solarte, Jorge Romero, Jose Librado Forero, Luis Beltran, Cesar Lasso and Carlos Duarte will be released unilaterally once security protocols have been
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On January 24th Unite the Union and the USW wrote to President Santos regarding the two recent killings of trade unionists in Colombia. They wrote as leaders of Workers Uniting, the global union, which has a partnership agreement with FENSUAGRO, the Colombian agricultural workers’ union, one of whose members
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High profile civil society group ‘Colombians for Peace’ has written to the three main parties to the Colombian conflict to request that they all agree to a 90-day ceasefire in the near future. The letters, addressed to the Commanders of the FARC and of the ELN, as well as to
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The SINTRAGRIM Meta department agricultural workers’ union has reported indiscriminate bombardments and machine gunnings by aircraft during operations by the army’s 7th Brigade along with the 21st Vargas battalion. The attacks have damaged peasant homes and have spread fear among the local population. According to the SINTRAGRIM report one peasant
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ONIC, the national indigenous council of Colombia has reported that two Embera indigenous men have been executed in the region of Caldas. Herminson and Alexander de Jesus Morales Zamora, 29 and 24 years old respectively, were disappeared on January 15th by unidentified armed men. The following day relatives received a
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In its 2012 Report on Colombia, Human Rights Watch has raised concerns about the continuing abuses in Colombia, despite the Santos government having a “greater concern for human rights” when compared to the notorious Uribe government. The report underlines that violence and some government policies threaten human rights in Colombia.
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MOVICE the National Victims’ Movement has reported that Mr Fernando Riascos who was last week reported disappeared after being missing for several months, has been located along with his daughter, thanks to the search mechanisms activated by the pressure of all the groups that broadcast the news. Mr Riascos disappeared
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On 13 January 2012, human rights defender Mr Abelardo Sánchez Serrano was threatened by two unknown men on a motorcycle in Barrancabermeja. Abelardo Sánchez Serrano is a member of the board of directors of Corporación Regional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos - CREDHOS (the Regional Corporation for the
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The CUT and the USO oilworkers’ union have reported the assassination of trade union leader and community activist Mauricio A. Redondo and his wife Janeth Ordonez. The two were killed at 19.30 on January 17th in Puerto Asis. The couple leave behind 5 children. Mr Redondo was from the settlement
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On Monday January 9th trade unionist Victor Manuel Hilarion Palacios was tortured and murdered by army soldiers. Mr Hilarion, a herdsman and muletrain driver from the region of Sumapaz, just south of Bogota, was travelling for work from San Juan de Sumapaz towards Rio Nevado when he was killed by
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In what the USO oil workers’ union is calling an “indisputable victory for national and international solidarity”, the USO President, Rodolfo Vecino has been reinstated after being fired by Colombia’s national oil company, Ecopetrol, in December. Rodolfo Vecino has received many death threats and has survived 2 assassination attempts,
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MOVICE, the National Victims’ Movement has reported the disappearance of Fernando Riascos and his 5 year-old daughter, following a protest vigil outside the Attorney-General’s offices in Bogota in September last year. Mr Riascos was widowed following the killing of his wife in 2008 by army troops. Soldiers shot Zenaida Luguizamon
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Original Source: http://justf.org/blog/2011/12/01/human-rights-counteroffensive-colombia The Colombian government is backing legislation that, if approved, would curtail military accountability for human rights abuses. If these provisions had been promoted by the 2002-2010 government of hardliner Álvaro Uribe, there would have been a firestorm of justifiable criticism. But so far, President Juan Manuel Santos’s
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On January 7th three indigenous men in the region of Pradera were illegally detained by army troops belonging to the Agustin Codazzi battalion of the Colombian military. The arrests follow many accusations and stigmatisations of indigenous people in the region during 2011, which locals blame on their criticism of government
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Timoleón Jiménez, the leader of the FARC, known as ‘Timochenko’, has sent a public statement on January 9th reiterating the FARC’s wishes to have dialogue with the Colombian government. The guerrilla commander states that they are willing to talk with the government about several issues including, “privatisation, deregulation, the absolute
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The General Secretary of UNITE the Union, Len McCluskey has again written to the Colombian Government today to express the union’s dismay at the ongoing persecution of their sister union, FENSUAGRO – the Colombian Agricultural Workers’ Union. In the letter, the case of six leading FENSUAGRO activists who have
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JfC’s annual fundraiser quiz was a huge success, raising over £2,000. Teams competed from nine trade unions, including ASLEF, Napo, NUT, NUJ, PCS, POA, UCU and UNITE, as well as from Thompsons Solicitors, the TUC and a TULO team of MPs. At the end of the night the
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The leader of Colombian Oil Workers’ Union, USO, Rodolfo Vecino has been dismissed from his job at ECOPTEROL, the Colombian Oil company, as retaliation for his trade union activity. The company attributed his dismissal, on 13th December, to the violation of his role as a public figure and his “participation
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